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32<br />
AN ILLUSTRATION FROM THE BALAKANDA:<br />
GANESHA ATTENDED BY LADIES<br />
MEWAR, NORTH <strong>INDIA</strong>, CIRCA 1700<br />
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the<br />
elephant-headed god depicted with rotund body, he<br />
wears a crown topped with a lotus, leaning against a<br />
large purple bolster, he holds various implements, a lady<br />
massages his hand, a rat in the foreground, other ladies<br />
attend to him, under a canopy, an inscription in black<br />
devanagari at top within a yellow cartouche, numbered 3,<br />
within black rules and red borders<br />
10º x 15√in. (26 x 40.5cm.)<br />
£3,000-4,000 $4,300-5,700<br />
€3,800-5,000<br />
PROVENANCE:<br />
Acquired before 1991.<br />
The Balakanda or ‘the book of childhood’ is the frst<br />
book of Valmiki’s Ramayana. This folio being the third<br />
folio was close to the beginning of the manuscript. It<br />
is therefore probable that an image of Ganesha was<br />
chosen for this illustration to provide the text with<br />
auspicious blessings for the start of the text.<br />
31<br />
THE TWO PERSONIFIED ATTRIBUTES <strong>OF</strong><br />
VISHNU: THE CONCH SHELL AND THE LOTUS<br />
BUNDI, RAJASTHAN, NORTH <strong>INDIA</strong>, CIRCA 1690<br />
A rare depiction of Shanka and Padma, opaque pigments<br />
heightened with gold on paper, he with ash-covered<br />
body, she with red skin, each with third frontal eye and<br />
crescent moon, they sit on a lotus, embracing each other,<br />
each holding a conch and a fowering lotus, banana and<br />
other trees at either side, with black and white rules and<br />
red border, two devanagari inscriptions at top, the reverse<br />
with English inscription in pencil ‘God of Love, Kama/<br />
Dev with wife’<br />
7 x 10ºin. (17.6 x 26cm.)<br />
£3,000-5,000 $4,300-7,100<br />
€3,800-6,200<br />
PROVENANCE:<br />
Acquired before 1991.<br />
33<br />
A PAINTING FROM A DASAVATARA SERIES:<br />
MATSYA AVATARA<br />
KANGRA, NORTH <strong>INDIA</strong>, CIRCA 1830<br />
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, blueskinned<br />
Vishnu emerging from his fsh avatar and holding<br />
a sutra page, a golden mace, a conch shell, a ring and with<br />
a lotus fower in his yellow dhoti, attacking in the water a<br />
demon in his conch-shell, bearing a golden mace and a<br />
shield, within a black, green and white scroll frame, with<br />
pink borders<br />
Painting 5 x 8in. (12.8 x 20.4cm.);<br />
page 6 √ x 9æ in. (17.3 x 25cm.)<br />
£4,000-6,000 $5,700-8,500<br />
€5,000-7,500<br />
PROVENANCE:<br />
Acquired before 1991.<br />
24